Walk more slowly
by url02cabbadge
Summary: Little babe lost in the woods shakes hands with a wolf and a crow. AU Wolf!Ace Crow!Sabo Kid!Luffy
1. over the garden wall

ch.1 over the garden wall

* * *

The large red apple hung innocently from the branch of an old crooked apple tree.

The tree sadly hunched over as the wind bent it's branches and the few leaves that it had rustled against it's gray bark.

Luffy stared up at the fruit that swayed along in the wind high above his twirled a brightly colored leaf between his fingers a grin wide on his lips.

A light frosty wind ruffled the dark brown hair that peeked from under his straw hat and he wiped at his slightly pink nose with the sleeve of his oversized red sweater.

Though it was already mid autumn it wasn't all that cold in fuusha village, only slight chilly gusts of wind disturbed the otherwise sun warmed weather, wich allowed the boy to stay warm in his knee lenght shorts and salmond pink sandals.

Luffy's stomach gave out a loud growl and a small hand was placed upon it. He'd been on his way home from school so the child hadn't had the chance to get anything to eat since lunch.

He stared up at the tall stone wall that separated little garden from the town. Bushes of pleasant smelling lilacs grew along the wall, their purple and white flowers already withering away, the changing seasons starting to slowly dull them down and blend them in with the old stones stacked upon each other in order to create the large barrier.

With a quick look around to make sure no-one was near he stuffed the leaf into the pocket of his sweater, reajusted his backpack on his shoulders and began to climb the wall ,stepping on some unfortunate dandelions that squeezed through cracks of asphalt as he did so.

It wasn't all that difficult, the large stones made it easy to climb. His small hands and sandal clad feet fit neatly into the gaps between the gray moss covered rocks acting almost as a staircase.

The wall seemed to stretch forever, becoming taller and taller as he climbed. Once he finally made it to the top though, he realized the apple was farther than he originally though. The fruit was cradled in dry gray dead and drying branches and hung above a drop that was several meters down and had no sight of a bottom.

No biggie, he could still get it.

He reached his little hand out to it, stretched out his whole body and leaned on some of the branches for support, but to no avail.

Cautiously he inched closer to the edge of the wall were some of the loose rocks moved around from his disturbance.

He reached.

'closer'

Once more.

'closer'

Almost.

Luffy was now standing on his tippy-toes, carefully balancing on the rocks and grasping onto the trunk of the tree for support.

His fingertips brushed the smooth surface of the fruit and he leaned over just a bit more.

The old branches creaked under the childs weight but he payed no mind to it.

One more final reach and-

'creek'

The fruit was now securely in his little hands.

The branches whined under the boy's weight and a few loose rocks trembled under his knees. A strong gust of wind blew from behind him forcing the child to lean in further into the tree.

"ah-"

is all he managed before

'crack'

The tree gave out under him, the old wood no longer able to support even the mere weight of a small child, and the mossy gray rocks rolled out from under his legs.

Luffy flailed his arms, desperately attempting to grab onto something nearby, anything that could stop his fall.

But he fell.

and he fell,

and he fell,

and he fell.

Wind rushed past his face, branches hitting him as he plummeted toward the forest floor. He seemed to fall forever, somewhat slow even. The wind didnt rush anymore, the branches merely brushed against him,

And then he hit the ground.

The wind was knocked out of him and he clutched his stomach in agony, rolling onto his side and groaning in pain.

After a few seconds he tried to shakily get up, wobbly hands supporting his upper body as he lifted it off the ground. A loud noise momentarily stopped him in his tracks.

'crish'

'crack'

'crash'

Luffy had just enough time to look up and see a large branch from the apple tree come crashing down right on top of the poor boy.

* * *

 _ **first chapter prologue thing done.**_

 _ **it's pretty short cuz' I cant really write long things**_

 _ **Yay! my firts fanfic in a while. So this exists i guess**_

 _ **I swear there are not enough Luffy, Ace and Sabo in the woods stories.**_

 _ **Luffy's about seven in this and Ace and Sabo are 19 i guess, they're not in this chapter though.**_

 _ **anyway Luffy roaming around the woods in the next one**_


	2. little garden

ch.2 little garden

* * *

Luffy struggled to get the heavy branch off of him. He wriggles around under the twisted piece of wood, arches his back in an attempt to throw it off and grabs onto nearby foliage for leverage.

After a few minutes of this he gives up, opting to looking around him.

Tall, mostly birch, trees stretched out and reached for the skies allowing only the bare minimum of light to pass through.

Luckily for Luffy his fall had made a large opening above him letting midday sunlight illuminate the magenta flowers that covered the entirety of the visible forest floor.

"So this is little garden." Luffy mused to himself, spitting out a few pink flowers that had gotten into his mouth.

He had only ever had the chance to glance at the dark forest from behind the stone walls that lined the town so it would have been an understatement to say the child was in utter awe.

He recalled hearing dark tales of the place from both his grandfather and other adults from the village. He'd heard of how terrifying beasts supposedly lived in the forest, of how it was cursed and if you happened to get lost in it you'd never be able to find your way back. He had heard face to face ,from some of the few hunters that braved to venture into the woods, that the place was a death trap, filled with monsters and wrong turns, filled with twisting and misleading paths with only a few ways out.

For a place that was supposedly such a dark and scary place Luffy found it to be very calm.

The few rays of midday sunlight that managed to squeeze through the thick canopy of trees highlighted some of the magenta carpeted floor, the white trunks of the birchtrees stood out in the dense forest and the filtered light made them almost glow in the darker parts of the forest.

A few birds chirped here and there and the chilly mid autumn wind rustled the leaves on the trees as a few of the thinner branches beat gently against their trunks. Luffy looked up to where he fell from seeing his backpack dangle uselessly from a high up tree branch.

He wriggled under the apple tree branch some more before resting his face on the slightly squashed carpet of flowers, their strong scent of burnt pinewood slightly irritating his eyes.

He layed there for a while, chewing on some of the pink plants until the sound of a branch snapping in front of him caught his attention.

Luffy lifts up his head just as a large deer had steeped into the clearing. The stags abnormally long neck, short and bulky body and it's large rack of antlers that crowned it's head left the boy in awe of the strange looking animal.

The sound of something crunching though brought Luffy right out of his awe induced trance.

"Oi!" He yelled angrily.

The deer ignored the child and continued to chew on the strawhat that lay on the ground.

"Oi! Oi deer! Oi!" He continued to yell flailing his small hands around.

After a moment of concideration the deer finally lifted up it's head and focused it's dark round eyes on the flailing child.

Stepping over the hat it took a few long steps forward before stopping and blowing a huff of warm air onto the boy, Luffy stared back at the creature, lip jutting out in a pout and hands crossed across his small chest.

" Oi! You stupid deer!"

The deer had begun chewing on the childs dark hair.

Luffy jerked his head back and pushed the stags face back with his palm. The deers wet snout and warm, moitst breath tickled his skin.

Luffy patted it on the nose a little and then began sliding his hand along it's warm chestnut brown hair.

It's ear twitched back when he ran his hand over it but the deer made no attempt to remove the child from itself.

That is until the boy grabbed onto the deers antlers, each small hand trongly gripping the complex bone structures.

The stag jerked it's head back, effortlessly lifting the heavy branch Luffy was trapped under and the child along with it. The deer shook it's head until the boy finally let go and fell onto the bed of flowers.

It let out a few annoyed huffs, stomped it's hooves on the ground and then waltzed off into the forest.

Luffy picked himself up from the ground, only half heartedly attempting to brush off the bits of foliage off of himself.

" Thanks!" He yelled after the deer before turning around and assesing the hat.

It didn't seem to be damaged. The edge of it was slightly frayed by the chewing the deer had done but otherwise it seemed to be okay.

Something red to the side caught his attention next.

The apple that had gotten him inton this situation lay on it's side a bit away from were he had fallen. The fruit was bruised on one side, the bright skin of it dulled down and turning a brownish color.

Food was food, Luffy thought and stuffed the apple into his pocket, a few bruises didn't really make much of a difference.

Luffy sat in the clearing for a bit. He stared up at the hole he had created in the tree, snapped branches and his packpack caught in the other trees.

He stared at the rock wall that separated the forest and the village, just like Luffy hadn't been able to see the bottom now he couldn't see the top of the stone struckture.

And then he stared into the forest. The filtered light was just bright enought to see around in.

Luffy weighed in his two options, he could either try to climb the wall or try to find a way out through the forest. He din't think too much, thinking made him sick after all.

After adjusting his hat back onto his head the child stared into the gloomy forest infront of him, his small cheeks and chest puffed out and with and determined look in his honey eyes Luffy took his first step away from the sunny clearing and ventured into the woods.

* * *

 **I still suck at writing long things but i have a basic concept of where i want this story to go.**

 **Went back and rewrote some of the first chapter to make it fit better plus the flow works better this way.**

 **The deer is based off a concept art from souljacker, just search 'souljacker deer concept art' on google its somewhere among the mechs.**

 **but yeah, next chapter Luffy definetly wandering around the woods and possibly Ace**


	3. babes in the wood

ch.3 babes in the wood

* * *

Luffy followed the trail of stepped on flowers left behind by the deer, picking up and discarding brightly colored flowers ,with his free hand not holding the box, as he went along. He watched as red bellied birds weaved through the tall trees while singing some unknown tune about islands and idiots. The forest got darker and darker as he went along and the flat flower covered forest floor started turning into slopes and dips with soft mossy ground , shrubs and fallen trees making the child trip on more than one occasion.

Eventually the childs stomach started to growl, his earlier hunger forgotten by the shock of falling into the mysterious forest, and he started to pick the berries off nearby blackberry bushes that crossed his path. After easily emptying atleats a dozen berry bushes, barely leaving the leaves left on the poor shrubs, he resorted to picking stawberries from the few plants that managed to thrive in the dry and densly knit forest.

Luffy wondered around some more. poking at strangely colored frogs and peeking into some low birds nests wich the birds themselves did not seem to appreciate. He ran into a few more of the strange long necked giraffe deer and evaded some hostile wild pigs.

Every now and again the sound of something rustling or snapping behind him would bring the child to a halt, only for the sounds to stop and the cheery chirping of birds would take its place. He didn't give it much thought finding more interest in chasing a large butterfly that fluttered infront of his face.

The child eventually saw a carpet of magenta flowers, the same ones that seemed to grow all over the forest , come into view. Small creeks ran through the ground connecting to larger pools. Dragonflies flew around and small fish swam lazily in the water. Lyffy spotted a salamander and was just about to chase after it when something large fell behind him.

The loud 'thump' scared off some resting birds, made the ground shake a bit and the surface of the water ripple. A loud angry voice cut through the momentarily stilled air and the child jumped a bit and a, presumably, young man came into view.

The man glanced at Luffy, clicked his tongue and walked back into the trees away from view.

"Hey!, you." He called after the man, but he was either too far away or just ignoring the child.

Luffy puffed out his cheeks, slightly annoyed and set out to follow the person but instead of steeping on solid ground the childs legs sunk into the unexpected body of water that stopped right below where his shorts ended, a bit over his knees.

It was starting to get late, Luffy's mind dully noted as he finally pulled himself out of the water. His leg had gotten caught on a branch or something underwater and it had taken quite a while for him the set himself free. The bright midday had turned into an orange early afternoon, and the sun could no longer protect him from the frosty fall wind.

Luffy sniffled, it was starting to get cold, he was quite tired and to top it all off he was hungry.

"I'll head home" he mumbled to himself and turned around

only to land face first into a soggy ditch.

Luffy faintly registered the sound of footsteps and a few words such as 'brat' and 'dont touch' mixed in with what was probably supposed to be english. But the child was too tired to pay it any serious mind opting to closing his eyes and drifting to sleep.

After he'd taken a nap he would surely figure out a way to get home.

* * *

 **I din't even bother trying to keep nature accurate in this, i have some knowledge on in what conditions and times of year some plants grow but its best to ignore everything just so i can make the story in whatever way i want.**

 **This could of been more detailed but its easier for me to just write the basics of whats going on and hope the readers can understand. Thinking of just posting a whole bunch of really short chapters from now on.**

 **Whatever, Ace came, he left, ,different pov next chapter**


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